Devdas falls short of UK Bollywood opening record

Distributor Eros International enjoyed its biggest success in the UK at the weekend with the much anticipated release of Devdas.

The Bollywood film grossed a massive $723,054 (£466,370) from 54 sites (on 74 screens) from Friday to Sunday (July 12-14) for a mighty site average of $13,390 - the highest of any film on release over the three-day weekend - and landed fifth position in the chart.

However Devdas, which stars Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai, just missed out on the UK record for a Bollywood title which is still held by last year's K3G (Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham). Distributed by rival Yash Raj Films, K3G grossed $733,884 (£473,355) on its opening weekend from 41 sites.

Early indications from India, however, are that Devdas has doubled the opening record gross set last year by K3G in the territory, with some $120,000 at 19 sites in Mumbai alone.

Back in the UK, also playing well this week was Warner Bros' kids opener Scooby-Doo, taking over the top spot from last week's leader Minority Report. Scooby-Doo grossed a massive $5.1m (£3.3m) from 472 sites over the weekend for an average of $10,724.

With previous weekend previews of $2.9m (£1.9m) from 432 sites added in this gives Raja Gosnell's film a total opening tally of $7.95m (£5.1m) - making it the company's second highest UK opening of all-time behind last year's Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone ($25.3m) and ahead of this year's Ocean's Eleven ($7.9m).

Battling its way into third place, Pathe's Resident Evil took a respectable $1.2m (£801,626) from 264 sites for a site average of $4,708. The film, which stars Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez, suffered from mostly negative reviews which, along with a hot weekend, most likely accounted for the slightly disappointing figures.

Biggest disappointment of the week was BVI's Bad Company. The action-comedy which stars Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock managed a feeble $593,059 (£382,523) from 288 sites for an average of just $2,059. The Jerry Bruckheimer produced film was savaged by the critics and even given negative press by Hopkins himself in a BBC television Omnibus profile of the actor two weeks ago. The weak performance follows a bad show in the US where it took just $29m.

Launching into 12th position Optimum Releasing's Nine Queens (Nueve Reinas) took $76,648 (£49,438). Playing at just 17 sites the Argentinian title scored a healthy average of $4,509.

Last week's top earner, 20th Century Fox's Minority Report, dropped off 39% this week to land second place with $3.7m (£2.4m) from 426 sites. It has an 11-day gross of $14.6m.

Rounding out the top five, Spider-Man dropped 53% this week into fourth place. The blockbuster now has a total gross of $39.3m.

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